Respiratory disease is a medical term that encompasses pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange possible in higher organisms, and includes conditions of the upper respiratory tract, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, pleura and pleural cavity, and the nerves and muscles of breathing.
Mechanical ventilation is necessary when the patient's spontaneous ventilation is inadequate to maintain life. Common medical indications requiring mechanical ventilation: Acute lung injury (including ARDS, trauma), Apnea with respiratory arrest (including cases from intoxication), Acute severe asthma requiring intubation, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Guillain-Barré syndrome, myasthenia gravis, spinal cord injury, or the effect of anesthetic and muscle relaxant drugs.
As of today, the majority of patients in need of mechanical ventilation devices are treated with non-implantable devices, which produce positive pressure to inflate the chest and expand it, similar to natural ventilation.
However, mechanical ventilators may have adverse effects and lead to medical problems such as pneumothorax, airway injury, alveolar damage, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Other complications include diaphragm atrophy, decreased cardiac output, and oxygen toxicity. One of the primary complications that presents in patients mechanically ventilated is acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In fact, ALI/ARDS are recognized as significant contributors to patient morbidity and mortality.
There therefore remains a need for mechanical ventilators, which may assist subjects suffering from respiratory failure breathing while causing minimal complications.
Medical devices are often implanted into humans and animals as a means of achieving a desired result. Examples of these implanted medical devices include: pacemakers (i.e., a device used to stimulate or regulate contractions of the heart muscle); defibrillators (i.e., a device used to counteract fibrillation of the heart muscle and restore a normal heartbeat by applying a brief electric shock); bone growth stimulation devices, pain blocking/attenuation devices, brain implant devices, and cochlear implant devices. Typically, these devices are powered by an internal battery or external battery pack (i.e., a battery pack implanted within the patient but external to the medical device). Unfortunately, these batteries/battery packs have a finite life span and, after a period of time, must be replaced or recharged. There therefore remains a need for systems, which may obviate the need for battery replacement.